How to get the best outcome for your club through the re-opening phase.

 It’s been a difficult few months and there is no doubt we are all still grappling with the pandemic and what it means for us as individuals and the fitness industry moving forward. Many clubs have expressed concern or confusion for what to do now its ‘go time’. Here are some ideas and insights into the marketing facet of your business through the coming months. 

The most successful outcomes all start with a plan and this basically entails you creating a vision that includes where you ARE and where you want to GET TO. What are the actions that you need to take to get there- remember this doesn’t need to be perfect, but doing something is more effective than nothing.

For most clubs, there is worry about how many members will start back when their doors open and their debit provider flicks the switch if they haven’t already. 

An achievable goal for many clubs is 80% of members starting up again. The question is how will you achieve this? I have found that most clubs have been doing a terrific job of communicating their COVID-safe facility to ease concerns of those worried members, but this is only part of the puzzle. 

The other part of the puzzle is motivating your members to take action and start coming back to the club to achieve their health and fitness goals like they did before lockdown. 

Put yourself in the member’s shoes, they come to your club for the reward of achieving their goals. It is important to use this ‘why’ of your members, do they come to your club for community connection, for weight loss to look good, to stay strong to keep doing what they love, to live longer or all of the above. Creating awareness of these benefits will help motivate your members to get back into your club soon. 

1. Inspire Motivation to Get Back in the Gym

Clubs cannot rely on their members motivating themself; it’s your job to inspire them to take action.

ACTION: It’s obvious, but motivational social mediaposts targeted at the members ‘why’ will spark action. Also offering free trials for friends and family of current members is a solid offering to improve retention, but to also add new member growth.

2. Send E-News

If you haven’t learned to use Mailchimp or another email platform, now is the time. It is the most effective way to inspire your members, and also inform them of your opening, any club changes and COVID-19 policies. 

3. Nurture Your Current Members

As the old saying goes, ’Take care of your own backyard.’ This point is important. Focus your attention on your current members, because this will yield the best results. Not until you are comfortable with where you retention sits, should you look toward external growth. 

4. Generate New Members

Now you’re content with your retention plan. You can move to the next stage, which is achieving member growth. The early bird gets the worm and the momentum created in these early stages of the post-iso adoption bell curve will set you up for a better finish to 2020. 

5. Utilise Free Social Media Marketing

We all know you need to spend money to make money, but how do you do this when cash-flow is so tight? To manage this it is important to understand what your strongest cost-benefit returners are and many clubs, this will be email and social media marketing. The only cost of email is time, so get moving on this while you have some. 

ACTION:  What if there was a way to target anyone who was interested in your club at a really low cost. The good news is that by creating a Facebook pixelyou can speak to those who are been on your website or Facebook page and these people are most likely to join your club. The people are going to provide the very best cost-benefit ratio with budgets as low as $5 a day! Retarget them with free trials to lower the barriers to entry and you will create something from almost nothing.

The coming months will truly be testing for the fitness industry, but it won’t last forever.  The business conditions will hopefully improve and as member spirits will lift, so will your outcomes.  In the mean time, try and control what you can and continue to inspire your local community to lead a healthier life!

Keep safe and well. 

Ben Revitt